


Just The Seven Dwarfs

by radondoran



Category: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-26
Updated: 2009-10-26
Packaged: 2017-10-11 03:45:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/107989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radondoran/pseuds/radondoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snow White is alive and with her Prince, but the dwarfs are less than happy.  (Except, presumably, Happy.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just The Seven Dwarfs

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the LiveJournal community fictictactoe, prompt "Natural selection".

 . . . So the Prince embraced Snow White, and carried her away to his golden castle, and they lived happily ever after.

And it was not until the following night, as the seven dwarfs sat down to a flavorless supper, that Sneezy voiced the question on everyone’s mind:  “Now what?”

“What, now what?” asked Doc, with his customary eloquence.  “I mean, what now now what?  I mean . . . what do you mean?”

“Now that she’s gone.”  There was of course only one _she_ in the dwarfs' lives.

Doc tried to smile.  “We’ll make do.”

“At least she’s alive,” Happy pointed out.

“And with her true love,” Bashful chimed in.  The murmur of agreement from the others was quiet and unconvinced.  The princess's apparent death had been devastating, but in a way this new silence was almost worse.  In the few weeks she had spent with the dwarfs, their little cottage had felt like home.  Nobody had really believed that she would ever simply _leave_.

"Still," said Doc, "I am going to miss her."

A chorus of _Me too_'s from around the table.

"It won't be the same without her cleaning up around here," he went on, with a wistful glance at the grimy table.

"Or her purty singing," put in Sleepy.

"Or," added Happy, "her pies."

An enthusiastic echo of "Pies!" erupted from the four other dwarfs, with an equally enthusiastic grin from Dopey.  They smiled in fond culinary recollection, and then Sleepy ventured a question:

"Do you think she'll come visit?"

"Oh, absotively!  That is, posi . . . I'm sure of it."

"Bah!"  Six pairs of eyes turned towards Grumpy, the only one (save Dopey) who had remained silent through the discussion so far.  He threw down his wooden spoon with a clatter.  "Why should she?"

"Oh, come now," said Doc, attempting to diffuse the greater-than-usual argument in the other’s voice.  "Surely—”

"_Surely_, nothin'!  The princess is done with the likes of us.  You saw that prince.  Tall, handsome, rich, charming—her dream man.  Her _true love_."  He pronounced the phrase with caustic sarcasm.  "He's the one she's been waiting for.  Of course she chose to go with him.  Did you nincompoops really expect her to stay here playing housewife forever?"

"Well—no, but—” Doc began.

"Maybe you don’t remember, but that wily woman only came here in the first place to hide anyway.  With the Queen gone, she would've—”  His voice broke slightly at the recollection of Snow White's death, but he continued, "She would've gone to find her prince.  She didn't have no reason to stay in this hovel.  And you think she's going to come _back_?  Bah!  She's gone for good.  I say, forget about her.  She's already forgotten about me."

The other dwarfs stared; the silence became profound.  Doc twice started to say something and appeared to decide against it.

"Us," Grumpy corrected, coloring.  He picked up his spoon again and defiantly set upon the insipid stew.  Dopey, looking sympathetic, tried and failed to meet his eye; the other dwarfs looked uncertainly at one another.  The meal ended without any further attempt at conversation, about the princess or anything else.

Sleepy was the first to escape, rising from his chair with a murmured “Think I’ll go up to bed.”  Before he made it more than two steps, though, he was stopped short and shocked into full alertness by a commanding “HEY!” from Grumpy.

The other six dwarfs braced themselves for another tirade—Dopey went as far as hiding behind Doc—but Grumpy only said, in the calmest tone of voice anyone could remember hearing from him:  “Put your dishes in the sink.”


End file.
